Archive By Section - LETTERS/COLUMNS

It is with a great deal of pleasure that I announce the Yarbrough Worldwide Media and Pest Control Company, located over a pool hall in Greater Garfield, has signed an exclusive contract with one of the nation's premier prognosticators, Plum Nelly Pitts, of Varnell, Ga.

I don't have to tell you what a coup this is. Frankly, it was a major commitment by the company but you deserve the best experts I can assemble and Plum Nelly is the best. It was not easy convincing her to join the team. Prognosticating is still controversial in some places. For ...

January 04, 2012|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

In preparation for our 2012 Legislative Session, I have been looking at what other states consider to be their top issues. Here are a few that seem to emerge as most important: Energy, jobs, Medicaid, state budgets and college affordability.

Americans are spending more than ever to put gas in their cars, heat their homes and pay their utility bills. Rising energy costs have increased the costs for everyday goods. Energy costs trickle down into everything we buy and every service we use.

January 04, 2012|
By Amos Amerson
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

For the past decade, I have written an annual letter of advice to your father, your uncle and their cousins, trying to give them a little perspective on what life was going to be like for them as they grew into adulthood. Today, they are all adults and are experiencing first-hand the ups-and-downs of everyday living. I discern that they are finding that life is harder than they thought. Welcome to the real world.

December 28, 2011|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia, I offer congratulations to Northeastern Judicial Circuit Public Defender Brad Morris on receiving the 2011 Indigent Defense Award, presented by the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Poor Georgians accused of crimes, including those who are innocent, rely upon our indigent defense system to protect their constitutional rights. The rest of us look to the public defender system to protect the integrity of the judicial process.

I wanted to thank everyone involved who helped make the third annual Taste of Dawson High at the Dawson County High School on Dec. 10 an even bigger and better event.

I could not have pulled this event off without thanking the following PTSO board members who helped make the event possible: Jon and Laurie Erickson, Alaina Jones, Katrina Lund, Kim Glaze, Michelle Matthews and Robyn Dunn.

I am pleased to announce that beginning with the New Year, Junior E. Lee, general manager of Round or Square Polls, a division of the Yarbrough Worldwide Media and Pest Control Company located in Greater Garfield, will be offering exclusive analysis of the upcoming presidential election that can be seen only in this space.

In addition, if you are bothered with termites, Junior is your man there, too. (He asked me to add that. Junior doesn't want to be seen as a one-trick pony. He is as proud of his reputation as an industry leader in termite eradication as ...

December 21, 2011|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

As one of the authors of the Georgia Water Coalition's Dirty Dozen list (on which the proposed Shoal Creek Reservoir in Dawson Forest was included), I am compelled to respond to assertions made in Commissioner Gary Pichon's letter to the editor of Nov. 16 ("Calling Water Dirty.")

The water that flows out of the hollows of Dawson and Lumpkin counties and through the Etowah River is not owned by anyone. No one can claim it as "their water."

In appreciation for your loyalty and support this past year, I had planned to thank you by sending each of you your own personalized Dick Yarbrough Christmas card - suitable for framing - that you could proudly show your envious friends.

December 14, 2011|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

The Greatest Generation, those who survived The Great Depression and World War II, are now among our dwindling number of oldest senior citizens.

When the going got tough, they got tougher and beat both monumental challenges. They didn't sit on their back side and whine for a government handout. They didn't Occupy Wall Street. They worked hard and accumulated their nest egg for retirement. We need to salute their work ethics.

December 14, 2011|
By Amos Amerson
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

Nobody likes to hear bad news forecasts. That is why almost no one ever reads the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. They were all saying that things were bad, and going to get worse, but that it would turn out OK in the long run. They were pessimists about the day, but optimists on a longer time line. Things always turn out for the good if you can stand the wait.

My solution to the current problems of the USA and of the world is to practice self-induced delusion and cling to irrational hope. I am going to pretend ...

You expect me to say "there are signs of Christmas," and certainly that is true. Retail establishments didn't wait until Black Friday to begin offering Christmas specials, and I hope we all remembered to "shop local businesses" on Small Business Saturday.

Individuals are putting away fall and Thanksgiving decorations and clothes and pulling out Christmas stuff.

December 07, 2011|
By Helen Taylor
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

In case you have been vacationing on the moon, you may have missed the news that the student-athletes from the University of Georgia, the oldest state-chartered university in the nation, located in Athens, the Classic City of the South, came up a wee bit short in attaining the football championship of the Southeastern Conference.

That honor went to the young men of Louisiana State University who, having observed them in post-game interviews, are destined to become either, you know, great orators or, you know, quantum physicists.

December 07, 2011|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

Today, I ask for a moment of personal privilege. It was two years ago this week that I wrote about the Three Wise Men that have so greatly influenced my life: Roy Hodnett, a real estate magnate on Saint Simons Island; Dr. Raymond Cook, my college professor, now residing in Valdosta and John W. Jacobs Jr., a broadcast pioneer and philanthropist from Gainesville. All three in their 90s or close to it. All three a part of the Greatest Generation. All three family men of faith. I could not have asked for better role models.

Last week, John Jacobs died ...

November 30, 2011|
By Dick Yarbrough
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS

Gov. Nathan Deal spoke to a large gathering of Republicans and Tea Party members on Nov. 22 in Dawson County. The event was sponsored by all three of the counties I represent as House District 9 Representative (Lumpkin, Dawson and Forsyth).

Deal covered a wide range of topics that would be looked at during the next Session of the General Assembly, as well as updating us on the budget situation.

November 30, 2011|
By Amos Amerson
For the Dawson Community News
|LETTERS/COLUMNS